whereas, president obama has made quite a few appearances in the eastern part of the state, although not recently. that is also true of michelle obama and vice-president biden. they have a tendency to campaign in the eastern part of the state which is where their political strength has been. host: the president has not been in north carolina since the convention. are people taking notice of that? guest: yes. the president has not campaigned in north carolina since april. governor romney was here a few weeks back, made an appearance in asheville, but that was mainly to have a visit with polygram, a much publicized visit, a visit to convey the message that it was ok for religious conservatives to vote for a mormon. vice-president joe biden has been here several times. so, this has been a battleground state but not a top tier battleground state. clearly, we have not seen the major candidates here, but we have seen a lot of campaigning we have seen something like $80 million spent here in campaign ads. we have seen as much advertising here as most of the major battleground states. not as